The battle to take Mosul back from Daesh has resumed after delays due to bad weather.

The Iraqi army on Monday captured a strategic bridge as coalition forces continue to battle Daesh for control of Mosul.

The Al-Hurriya bridge is the second bridge crossing the Tigris River to be captured since the offensive to take the west of the city began on February 19. It's believed some 60,000 people have fled western Mosul since then.

"We control the western end of the bridge," said a senior media officer with Rapid Response, the elite unit of the interior ministry leading the charge through the districts alongside the Tigris river.

Iraqi forces backed by a US and Iranian-backed coalition recaptured all of Mosul east of the Tigris in January after 100 days of fighting.

Due to poor weather conditions over the weekend air support was suspended, leaving troops on the ground struggling.

TRT World correspondent Nicole Johnston reports from the battleground in Mosul where she spent time with some of those fleeing and the Iraqi security forces who are protecting them.

The battle to drive Daesh out of western Mosul is likely to become more intense as coalition forces advance on the city centre, packed with buildings and crisscrossed with narrow streets.

Defeating Daesh in Mosul, Iraq's second biggest city and the terror group's last major bastion in the country, would be a serious blow to the Iraqi wing of Daesh, three years after its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a so called "caliphate" over parts of Iraq and Syria.